Alternative Ships 2.0 fleet

So I have been Working on ways to win ever since 2.0 came out. I was running a full republic fleet with boba geo and Cassian as the other 3 so I had no choice but to rebuild my fleet strategy from scratch since the update more or less killed pure republic fleets.

Well I'm finally back in the top 10, and I'm not running the meta. My fleet is all about damage.

So this is my lineup. Starting 3 are fast and hit hard followed by many assisters.
Cassian to buff wipe, consular for prot regen, geosol for massive damage, or boba for some defense that damages. It's a good alternative fleet to the meta.

Anyway there it is. Once I figure my new phone out I might record some matches. Questions? Comments? All are welcome.

Replies

For the record, my favorite part about this composition is the minimal amount of RNG I have to put up with. It's all about damage mostly. There is some minor strategy like knowing when to hold back on special abilities and picking the right reinforcement for the situation, but the sheer amount of damage kind of eliminates the RNG except when it's ridiculous.

Clone Sergeant and Plo don't deal enough damage. I've found that thinking defensively is a way to fail in this new ship arena. Damage and speed are king, if I sacrifice any for defense or tricks by using Plo or Clone Sergeant than I just can't kill their team fast enough to get ahead of the RNG slogfest and gain a distinct advantage before thrawn/Tarkin's ultimates go off if I'm unlucky enough to have the fight last that long.

Yesterday I climbed only to #6 and I fell to 14th. I can't say how well it would hold in another shard. I know anyone running Mace lead is probably going to get targeted, but I feel like this particular lineup would work with any command ship so that part's kind of irrelevant (though Mace's new ultimate works a lot nicer with heavy hitters I will say).

I'm mainly using Poe as a reinforcement, but yeah, in the starting line up on offense you could OHKO an enemy TIE off the bat, as I believe he still has the fastest ship. Ahsoka can clear Biggs' taunt right away so this seems like a good opener. Although it seems with Ackbar lead you could then do AoE with calling two assists and maybe get rid of Vader, then they're two shops down before their capital takes a turn.

I'm mainly using Poe as a reinforcement, but yeah, in the starting line up on offense you could OHKO an enemy TIE off the bat, as I believe he still has the fastest ship. Ahsoka can clear Biggs' taunt right away so this seems like a good opener. Although it seems with Ackbar lead you could then do AoE with calling two assists and maybe get rid of Vader, then they're two shops down before their capital takes a turn.

My Poe is 2 pieces short of being maxed, and he is "just" short of OHKOing a TIE fighter off the bat (maybe with Mace's unique maxed he can, dunno yet). That's alright though. I honestly buff him right away to try and lure them to attack him instead of Ahsoka and possibly avoid getting a target lock/damage from their TIE to start. Sometimes it works.

If it doesn't, I can lay the smack down on their Biggs between the defense down from 5s and Poe's offense up. He's also taken massive damage from Ahsoka's buff wipe too, so he's often dead at that point. If he does survive, then turn 2 of cap ship with my assister reinforcing will finish him off. My reinforcement is usually either Cassian or Geo depending upon whether or not Boba came in on their side. Cassian if he did to wipe Boba's taunt etc. Or Geo to just maximize the damage on my side of the field.

To be fair, I bought 4 refreshes yesterday just trying out different lineups and strategies until I found one that worked. It was well worth it though because I feel confident in my ability to win now. 25 matches in one day is plenty to get a feel for what's going on.

Here's a video. I got bad RNG in this fight, but it wasn't absolutely horrible.

@Nikoms565 You've been pretty vocal about disliking the amount of RNG in ships 2.0. You might dig this lineup.

I've tried lineups that are not RNG dependent (Vader, Biggs, Bistan as just one example). Until most other players pull TFP and/or FOTP out of their lineups, RNG still runs rampant in fleet battles. I've already given up trying to go against the flow - doing so just puts a major target on your back. For the few weeks I was trying to run an "RNG-free" starting lineup, I would drop 30+ in an hour. Since returning to what everyone else does, I hang around to the top 20, so I can finish in the top 10 with a handful of battles - no need to refresh anymore.

TL;DR - I can finish where you do without having to gear up ships/pilots that are useless everywhere else (i.e. Mace, Ahsoka, JC, etc.) - so why bother?

So yeah, I'm pretty much fed up with Ships 2.0, because nothing really matters. Keep on keeping on.

I'm mainly using Poe as a reinforcement, but yeah, in the starting line up on offense you could OHKO an enemy TIE off the bat, as I believe he still has the fastest ship.

there is still RNG in this. I run a max Poe (max pilot and max ship abilites) in my starting lineup. you dont always ko a maxed out TFP. alot of times you will leave a sliver of health left. then his TFP will go next. if he lands his TL then you have even more RNG after that since he can dodge the capital ships aoe leaving him alive and well.

if I toss tfp into the starting lineup with poe, then its rng who's tfp will go after poe.

there are a lot of factors in play with new ships and a lot of counters to everything. I highly doubt anyone will figure out a true meta until every ships abilities are maxed out.

@Nikoms565 You've been pretty vocal about disliking the amount of RNG in ships 2.0. You might dig this lineup.

I've tried lineups that are not RNG dependent (Vader, Biggs, Bistan as just one example). Until most other players pull TFP and/or FOTP out of their lineups, RNG still runs rampant in fleet battles. I've already given up trying to go against the flow - doing so just puts a major target on your back. For the few weeks I was trying to run an "RNG-free" starting lineup, I would drop 30+ in an hour. Since returning to what everyone else does, I hang around to the top 20, so I can finish in the top 10 with a handful of battles - no need to refresh anymore.

TL;DR - I can finish where you do without having to gear up ships/pilots that are useless everywhere else (i.e. Mace, Ahsoka, JC, etc.) - so why bother?

So yeah, I'm pretty much fed up with Ships 2.0, because nothing really matters. Keep on keeping on.

I don't really feel like mace is that important to this fleet strategy. Ahsoka is for sure. JC could easily be replaced with another high damage ship like FOTP.

I dropped to 15th after taking 1st yesterday, but everyone's shard is different. I fell a total of 14 spots between my payouts yesterday and today, and a total of 8 spots between my payouts yesterday and the day before. Being different doesn't always mean dropping more, especially not if it's a better line-up than the normal (this is).

To be Fair, I honestly think the best lineup all around will be: [Silencer, FOT, FOST], Geo, Poe, LMF, Ahsoka/Fives/Resistance Pilot (not sure of that last spot I'm certain of the other 6 though) simply because the starting 3 deal massive damage while all being very fast and everyone you can call in will lay a severe beat down. Not sure what the best Cap Ship for it would be though.

One thing's for certain is that whatever the new META ends up being, it won't be Biggs, X1, (insert random TIE). Defense is dead in ships 2.0 Offense is everything... including the best defense.

Im with Nikoms. It sounded so good at first glance, but by running the meta, I can get to higher spots for payout + I drop less, so whats the point of even trying to do any different.

Neither of the statements after your but is true. This fleet holds well on Defense and I took 1st with it. So you can climb as high as you want with it, and it really shouldn't fall far on defense either because most fleets couldn't handle the damage it can dole out. They certainly can't match it.

If you don't want to run it for some reason or another, cool, but the reasons you gave aren't really true so I had to say something.

Im with Nikoms. It sounded so good at first glance, but by running the meta, I can get to higher spots for payout + I drop less, so whats the point of even trying to do any different.

Neither of the statements after your but is true. This fleet holds well on Defense and I took 1st with it. So you can climb as high as you want with it, and it really shouldn't fall far on defense either because most fleets couldn't handle the damage it can dole out. They certainly can't match it.

If you don't want to run it for some reason or another, cool, but the reasons you gave aren't really true so I had to say something.

He's probably saying that he drops so much by not running meta that he can't climb high enough/fast enough to get top spots for payout. It's just easier to run what everyone else is in 2.0 because that way you're not a target.

I'd love to see a video of your team performing on defense, though I know that is certainly going to be hard to come by. But if it's easier to face on defense than a standard Biggs + TIEs team then it will drop. And it will drop hard. Depending on the shard you could drop down to 100 or so for simply just not having the same team as everyone else.

Honestly the strongest defensive teams I've faced have either Bistan in their starting line-up or Sun Fac, and mostly have Tarkin's capital ship. The tm gain on ship death for their whole fleet is pretty devastating. Damage output per turn is one thing, but how many turns your fleet takes is another way to out DPS your enemy.

Im with Nikoms. It sounded so good at first glance, but by running the meta, I can get to higher spots for payout + I drop less, so whats the point of even trying to do any different.

Neither of the statements after your but is true. This fleet holds well on Defense and I took 1st with it. So you can climb as high as you want with it, and it really shouldn't fall far on defense either because most fleets couldn't handle the damage it can dole out. They certainly can't match it.

If you don't want to run it for some reason or another, cool, but the reasons you gave aren't really true so I had to say something.

He's probably saying that he drops so much by not running meta that he can't climb high enough/fast enough to get top spots for payout. It's just easier to run what everyone else is in 2.0 because that way you're not a target.

I'd love to see a video of your team performing on defense, though I know that is certainly going to be hard to come by. But if it's easier to face on defense than a standard Biggs + TIEs team then it will drop. And it will drop hard. Depending on the shard you could drop down to 100 or so for simply just not having the same team as everyone else.

Honestly the strongest defensive teams I've faced have either Bistan in their starting line-up or Sun Fac, and mostly have Tarkin's capital ship. The tm gain on ship death for their whole fleet is pretty devastating. Damage output per turn is one thing, but how many turns your fleet takes is another way to out DPS your enemy.

I definitely understand about the being a target thing, but standing out making you a target is only really a problem if the fleet can't hold on defense. Not sure how well it does on defense I suppose, I can only attest to how far I've fallen running it (8 ranks 1 day, 14 the next). I'm sure I'm getting targeted a lot because of the Mace lead if nothing else, it wasn't that good in past fleet, and is generally considered horrible in this iteration of it, so it has to have some merit on defense.

See I haven't found Sun Fac to be impressive at all when I've faced him so far. I'm sure that's because of the nuances of my fleet. Defense down makes tanks less tanky. Ahsoka with an offense up will do massive damage to Sun Fac with her buff wipe. She's a hard hitter to begin with, but giving herself offense up on basic and then removing Sun Fac's bonus defense by wiping his taunt makes her his achilles heel. Fives as well since he'll wipe his buff with his basic if SF's target locked.

I have yet face a Bistan in a starting line-up (or at all maybe?), so I can't speak on that.

When I say damage I really mean DPS. Damage over time. GeoSol is slow, but it doesn't matter because he assists on his own. Poe, Ahsoka, 5s are all really high on the list of fast ships. Every one of them goes faster than Biggs or x1 (though whichever one 5s hits will go before Ahsoka). So that's kind of the idea is that this fleet is fast damage, not just damage. Assist come in, bam! Knock someone out. Keep Poe and Ahsoka alive because they are fast heavy hitters. If I lose both of those 2 before gaining a distinct advantage it's not good.

I run mace, but with a different starting lineup. Biggs, vader, bistan. Bistan goes before opponent vader when maxed. Spread the TL. If you have multiple TL, bring in 5s for his AOE. If you need healing or have the number advantage, bring in plo koon, and use his inspiring charge. Game over. I have a 90%+ win rate on a day one shard. 90% thrawn, a couple tarkin. Usually only drop 10-15 spots max. Finish top 5 every day. Have boba and sarge as the other 2 on the bench. Between bistan and vader being able to hit TFP without dodge, usually not an issue. If he has TL on tfp, sarge can usually OHKO him as well.

To be Fair, I honestly think the best lineup all around will be: [Silencer, FOT, FOST], Geo, Poe, LMF, Ahsoka/Fives/Resistance Pilot (not sure of that last spot I'm certain of the other 6 though) simply because the starting 3 deal massive damage while all being very fast and everyone you can call in will lay a severe beat down. Not sure what the best Cap Ship for it would be though.

Probably Home One. The opening AoE would be devastating with those starting ships. On offense you'd probably just cycle through AoE, reinforce, basic. Defense would be a little annoying because it would use Ackbar's cleanse+heal when a basic would be better, but at least that gives advantage. Home One has real good speed, too.

The bonus protection from assists doesn't hurt, either--I know you're all about the offense with this build, but it's better than a poke in the eye with a stick.

My only concern would be that if your opponent knows what you're doing, the easy counter is Executrix with a beefy starting lineup of tanks to absorb those attacks like late night pancakes after a pubcrawl. Just stay alive long enough for Tarkin's ult and the match is over. But, then again, that would require your opponent to know what they're doing instead of just trying the same old thing over and over again even though it doesn't work any more, and we know what this game's community is like, so congratulations on your free wins!

Has anyone tried Akbar + resistance Xwing reinforce with Falcon and Poe and Vader in starting lineup? 60% chance to assist each attack by other resistance and expose on basic...

I did, and it half works. There are three basic problems:
1) Poe is just TOO GOOD as a reinforcement. The bonus damage that Dramatic Entrance gives is too important.
2) Falcon is still pretty meh, to be honest. Its damage seems really low, considering how high its Physical Damage stat is. I want to test it out more once we have the pve board.
3) No taunt you’re too vulnerable if you can’t hide behind someone.

BUT! Hey! Here’s good news! Once a ship that can taunt with this build comes out you’re most of the way there. Maybe one more Resistance ship, too, so you can put Poe in Reserve where he really shines. So, as I said, this half-works, and hopefully once the pve board comes out there’ll be new ships and shops attached to it that will make it fully-work.

Best way I have found is silencer, tfp and fotfp. Use silencer to stun vader then finish him off with the others. Bring on vader as reinforcement use his special to stop dodge on tfp. Then finish them off. Can win most battles within 1 min that way. Took me a while to figure out but works for me.

Best way I have found is silencer, tfp and fotfp. Use silencer to stun vader then finish him off with the others. Bring on vader as reinforcement use his special to stop dodge on tfp. Then finish them off. Can win most battles within 1 min that way. Took me a while to figure out but works for me.

The meta is vader tfp biggs. Even if you stun vader, it leaves 2 target lockers on the field.. Point is, you cant just 'finish them off' because youll be striking your hammer against a mountain, called Biggs Protection.

Best way I have found is silencer, tfp and fotfp. Use silencer to stun vader then finish him off with the others. Bring on vader as reinforcement use his special to stop dodge on tfp. Then finish them off. Can win most battles within 1 min that way. Took me a while to figure out but works for me.

The meta is vader tfp biggs.

For now. These ships were already meta before so it's easy to just plug them right in. Time will tell if they actually stick.

Great stuff, always fun to see ppl really trying different angles and going with something of their own instead of following the meta! I did something similar but for completely different reasons. I gave up on actually understanding ships 2.0 so I just invested everything i had in FO ships since I like the faction. Ended up with a decent fleet of slicer, fotf, sftf as starting line and shuttle with maxed reinforcement ability.

I think there are a lot more ships (including capital ships) that could be viable now than before, but because it takes such heavy investments in expensive gear and pilots for a ship to be really competative it will take some time before we see a lot of ppl daring to go of the beaten track.

Best way I have found is silencer, tfp and fotfp. Use silencer to stun vader then finish him off with the others. Bring on vader as reinforcement use his special to stop dodge on tfp. Then finish them off. Can win most battles within 1 min that way. Took me a while to figure out but works for me.

The meta is vader tfp biggs.

For now. These ships were already meta before so it's easy to just plug them right in. Time will tell if they actually stick.

Its not a matter of time, but if theres any fleet compositions that can reliable beat the biggs vader tfp lineup (assuming same conditions). No such teams were found in the past month, so the meta is decided for now.
The meta might change in the future, but that will be made possible only if CG alters the ship abilities/stats/launches new ones.

Best way I have found is silencer, tfp and fotfp. Use silencer to stun vader then finish him off with the others. Bring on vader as reinforcement use his special to stop dodge on tfp. Then finish them off. Can win most battles within 1 min that way. Took me a while to figure out but works for me.

The meta is vader tfp biggs. Even if you stun vader, it leaves 2 target lockers on the field.. Point is, you cant just 'finish them off' because youll be striking your hammer against a mountain, called Biggs Protection.

It's about speed. My fleet are all 230+ speed so get to go 1st 90% of the time. This works for me every battle. All are brat with in a minute and I am top of my league so not playing against lower teams in it.